The United States Space Force should pivot its focus to keeping pace with weaponry used in orbit by the nation’s adversaries a top General has warned.
According to Space.com, Gen Michael A. Guetlein, Vice Chief of Space Operations spoke at the 16th annual McAleese “Defense Programs” Conference in Arlington, Virgina, Tuesday, and warned that Space Force needs to rethink how its approaches its satellite security measures.
“The reason we stood the United States Space Force up, was to make a pivot,” Guetlein said. “Because we had seen our near peers starting to catch up with us and starting to get very capable and very determined at denying our ability to use space.”
Guetlein said the Space Force needs to work on enhancing its war-fighting capabilities.
He continued: “What we did not inherit when we stood up the United States Space Force, is space superiority as a core function. We didn’t have the doctrine, we didn’t have culture, we didn’t have the kit. And part of standing up the Space Force was to make it a war-fighting force, capable of defending our capabilities in and through space, capable of guaranteeing that we are going to have space superiority for the joint force, no matter what the joint-force is asked to do.”
Guetlein noted that one of the issues is people thinking that Space Force isn’t actually real, and this attitude is working against the U.S. because people aren’t necessarily worried about space.
“That is the pivot we are trying to make,” Guetlin said. “But we are still new enough that people don’t understand that Space Force is real … that was a luxury that we had when space wasn’t contested. We no longer enjoy that luxury. “
Guetlin said that Americans don’t understand how critical space is to their everyday lives, and noted that U.S. adversaries are now blocking, jamming, and carrying out cyber-attacks on a regular basis.
“What’s more concerning, is the new kit that they’re bringing to the fight – nesting dolls in space that are capable of launching an ASAT missile to take out another satellite, shadowing U.S. satellites. Multiple satellites up there today are shadowing our U.S. satellites in a cat and mouse game, we move, they move,” Guetlein said.
The weapons that are now being used in space is also alarming and Guetlin noted that the talk of nuclear weapons being used in space is now a regular discussion.
“We’re seeing nukes in space now, the talk of nukes in space, that would have never happened before we stood up the United States Space Force … now we’re seeing hypersonics.” Guetlin said.
“We are also now starting to see our near peers focusing on practicing dogfighting in space, with satellite on satellite,”Guetlin said. “The environment has completely changed. There used to be a capability gap between us and our near peers, mainly driven by the technological advancement of the United States. That capability gap used to be massive, that capability gap has significantly narrowed.”
